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As some of you may have read on my Facebookpages or Twitter or Instagram, this lil’ site has been nominated by LA Weekly for Best TV Blog. I’m really flattered and honored to make the cut, but now LA Weekly has poked at the competitive BEAST that lurks inside me. The beast that wants to WIN.

In all seriousness, I’m really psyched about this. My blog has never been in the running for anything (sad), and for LA Weekly to nominate it means that I must be doing something right (or at least their standards are very low). If y’all could help me bring home the big trophy, that would be even awesome-r.

The process is so simple that even a monkey could do it (a monkey who can read and type, that is). Just follow this link, click on “B-Side Blog” in the TV category, enter a name and email and vote! The polls close on 7/18; so just do it now and get it over with. And yes, I am needy and demanding.

The blog isn’t the only thing I’ve been ignoring.

Thank you all for your patience. I know my posts have been spotty, but I’m truly hoping to have more consistent content soon. I regrettably have to do hideous things like work because shockingly, blogs don’t really earn that much money. Still, I hope to find a proper balance soon enough…

Hey everyone! Just in case you didn’t read the message on my last Big Brother post of the season, my blog is on temporary hiatus while I finish up work on another project. I hate to leave readers hanging, but hopefully I’ll be done soon and can get back to blogging. I’ll still post the podcast and an occasional “easy” piece for me to write, but for now, the photocaps are on pause. Sorry and thanks for your patience!! I’m working as fast as I can! In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/bsideblog).

Did you know that B-Side Blog has a Tumblr? Probably not. That’s because it’s pretty new. I haven’t really explored Tumblr very much and don’t really know how to add functionality to it, but that’s okay. I don’t really need the bells and whistles.

So why follow my tumblr? Well, because it features all the fun of B-Side Blog and then some. The B-Side Blog tumblr contains blurbs and links to all the new posts here on claaaaasssic bsideblog.com, but in addition to that, I also post most of my instagram pics to the site as well, not to mention the various junk I reblog from other tumblr sites (which may or may not include gratuitous photos of U.S. sprinter Ryan Bailey). Plus, I’m hoping to post some quick “on the fly” stuff through my Tumblr app too. So, obviously, that will be awesome. Right?

In a sense, the Tumblr will actually be more active than this here site, if only because it’s easier for me to post a quick snippet or photo there than to do a whole lengthy item here (as some of you know, I’ve been busy the past few months with non-blog related obligations, which has slowed down my output). One annoying thing: someone already has bsideblog.tumblr.com; so I had to do the weird b-sideblog.tumblr.com. [stomps foot in ground, sighs] That’s what you get for jumping on the bandwagon late.

In case you didn’t notice, there’s a new look here at B-Side Blog. It all happened because my previous theme was so slow on the backend (ie. the control panels, the stuff I need to do to upload posts) that I decided to streamline everything into a clean, simple layout. Some notable features you may wish to use and peruse:

Searching: The search field is no longer hidden away in the sidebar. Now it’s located conveniently in the header, just under the site’s logo. You can also find search boxes in the sidebar and footer. Search freely and blissfully!

Featured Stories: Previously, my site had a giant slide show up top that would scroll through the featured blog posts of the moment. I’ve scrapped the slideshow, but up in the header, there’s still a nifty slider of the stuff I either want you to see or think you might have missed. You may see it change shape here and there as I may tinker with its look.

Sharing: At the bottom of every post is now not just a Facebook and Twitter sharing feature, but a way for you to share over sites like Google Plus, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon. I’m not totally sold on the current sharing plugin; so it may change around a bit, but either way, be sure to share anything you like!

Instagram! On the sidebar, you may notice a little slideshow. That’s my Instagram feed! If you like it, feel free to follow me on Instagram. User name: bsideblog. Otherwise, enjoy the pics.

Shifty Sidebar: The new theme peels away the sidebar on individual posts. I wanted to keep it, but I didn’t know how, and now, I’ve grown to like the no-frills experience it offers. Don’t be confused if you can’t find the sidebar — it’s not there. And if you really want it back, I’ll look into seeing how I can implement it on individual pages

I think that’s about it. I hope you like the new look and find that content is easier to access than ever before. As usual, I’m behind on all my posts, but keep an eye out because I will catch up. I swear!

“New temporary layout? That’s pretty cool.”

I’ve had to pare down my site template while I try to figure out what’s been causing outages on the backend (caused by the site eating up too much memory). Now that the site has been simplified, I’m sort of digging it.

I had originally gone with my previous layout (Arras) in order to introduce a slideshow to better drum up interest in posts that may have been “below the fold.” But now there’s so much… space. I do miss some of the slideshow’s functionality.

What say you, readers from the Internet. Do we like simple? Or informative?

If the blog looks a little weird, it’s because I’ve disabled all the plugins and switched to a basic theme temporarily. The site has been very slow for me on the backend, and supposedly if I disable everything, it should speed up. Everything will return, and hopefully, I will isolate the plugin that is slowing things down. If I don’t, well, then I am going to cry. Video to ensue.

It’s the Holidays, and I’ve officially relocated from my sunny corner of Los Angeles to the cold, windy domain of my parents’ home in New York for the week. As such, my blogging will be a bit slower for the next several days, but fear not: there will be content. On deck is a post about a cooking class with Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, an Entenmann’s baking party, a new podcast, and probably whatever viral videos come my way.

If I can, I will try to get up some coverage on the Survivor finale too and some Real Housewives stuff. In the meantime, I’m going to try to thaw the permafrost that has accumulated on my toes.

Hey, and since you’re here, check out the above informative video about the history of Santa Claus. It’s pretty neato.

As some of you may have noticed, I haven’t posted anything on this blog in nearly a week. That’s because I spent four days sans laptop, thus rendering me powerless as a blogger. The good news is that my laptop and I have been reunited, and now I can resume normal blogging activities.

First things first: some housekeeping. Over the summer I launched two contests, neither of which I ever announced the winners of. One was for a copy of Rocco DiSpirito’s cook book Now Eat This! I’ll be honest: I totally forgot about the contest. I pledge to try the submitted recipes next week and provide a winner.

As for the second contest, I challenged readers to submit haikus in order to win a free Beauty Express Brow Kit from Anastasia of Beverly Hills. Well, I’ve selected a winner. The glorious haiku after the jump…

After I got back from my family vacation, I was all psyched to blog like crazy. Too bad I picked up a VD down in Orlando, and by “VD” I mean “virtual disease,” which would explain the wonky behavior on the site as of late. Many people using PCs have reported malicious redirects of this site, sending them to another page that implores them to download malware (disguised as a program to rid their computers of viruses). I thought I had fixed the issue last week by disabling my flash-based ads, but the problem has persisted. Nevertheless, I just spent the past several hours foraging through the back-end of my site, and I found all sorts of suspicious and nefarious files. I’ve eradicated the bad code and purged the offending files from my system, but I can’t be totally sure I’ve gotten rid of the bug until I hear from you all.

If you reach my site and face a redirect, please do the following:

1) Clear your browser cache and try again. You may still be loading the infected B-Side Blog.
2) Turn a Flash blocker on (it seems to work as a temporary fix to the problem. If it doesn’t, let me know.)
3) Take a screenshot and email it to me (bsideblog at gmail dotcom) along with your computer/platform and browser.

Whatever you do, do NOT download the suggested software at the redirected site.

People with Macs should have no problems with my site (Macs rule), but if you have a PC and are having issues, feel free to use B-Side Blog’s RSS feed: feed://feeds.feedburner.com/B-sideBlog

Lastly, if you had been blocked or redirected but are now able to freely browse my site, let me know. This way I can gauge the success of my latest attempts to fix this.

Thanks for your patience. Hopefully I can put this behind me and focus on generating new content.